Envelope Tray Alert issues with OL 2003

[Jerad Rose]

Our company has recently upgraded from Outlook 2000 to Outlook 2003. I have
several rules set up on our Exchange server that move items from my Inbox to
various folders, depending on various conditions.

The problem is, OL 2003 does not consider new mail as "new mail" unless it
remains in the Inbox (at least, from what I understand and have read). This
prevents three actions from happening:

1) No desktop notification of the new mail
2) No sound notification of the new mail
3) No task tray notification (envelope icon) of the new mail

The first and second actions can be replicated by creating a rule that will
be used for all new messages received. However, there is no way to also
create an action for the task tray envelope icon in the rules.

I know I'm not the first person to ask about this, but I've yet to see
anyone give a direct answer as to whether or not there is a true fix for
this (as opposed to an alternative or changing my practices), and why MS
made this change (without offering an option to revert to the old method),
considering how many posts I've seen about asking about this.

Most responses I've seen just say to set up a rule for desktop alert &
sound, but the main problem with these is that they are lost when the user
is away from their machine. Then, the response to this is to create a
desktop notification (that pops up in the middle and stays until it is
closed), but this is much more intrusive, especially when you're actually at
the PC when the mail arrives.

My other question is, why does this notification fail only when connected to
an Exchange, but if connecting to a remote POP3 server, it behaves just as
before? This seems to contradict the fact that MS made a conscious change
to the new "feature" of preventing the notification when rules move messages
to another folder.

Thanks in advance for any feedback you have on this.

Jerad

 

[Roady [MVP]]

See http://www.howto-outlook.com/howto/mailalert2003.htm

The change also applies to POP3 accounts. Only mails received in the Inbox
will show the envelope alert. Part of the reasoning for this was that people
didn't want the icon to show when they used rules to move messages. Why they
made the change without an option to turn it back on (even as a rule) is
beyond me as well; you'll need to contact Microsoft about (but I doubt
support will be able to answer it for you though).

 

[Diane Poremsky [MVP]]

There is no 'fix' for this. It works for pop servers because the mail hits
the inbox before rules move it. When you use exchange, server side rules
move the messages even if outlook is closed. You could try to force rules to
be client side so that they only run when outlook is open.

http://www.slipstick.com/rules/serverbased.htm

 

[Roady [MVP]]

POP3 won't show the icon either. At least not in Outlook 2007. Can't
remember Outlook 2003's behavior for sure anymore. Makes the behavior a bit
more consistent though ;-)

--
Robert Sparnaaij [MVP-Outlook]
Coauthor, Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003

 

[Jerad Rose]

Thanks for your response, Roady.

Unfortunately, I had read that link, and it only provides the workarounds I
listed in my original post.

Regarding POP3 vs. Exchange, for whatever reason, this alert works just like
I prefer it from my home email. I connect to my ISP (POP3) to get my email,
have similar rules set up to move mail to folders based on various
conditions, and the new mail task tray envelope icon shows up every time I
get a new email. Maybe it's a bug or glitch, but if so, I wish I could
figure out how to get it to behave that way at work.

I figured as much about trying to get MS to address this, considering it
still behaves the same way (AFAIK) in OL 2007. Like I said, I've seen many
posts about this regarding 2003, so it doesn't look like this will change
anytime soon.

Thanks again.
Jerad

See http://www.howto-outlook.com/howto/mailalert2003.htm

The change also applies to POP3 accounts. Only mails received in the Inbox
will show the envelope alert. Part of the reasoning for this was that
people didn't want the icon to show when they used rules to move messages.
Why they made the change without an option to turn it back on (even as a
rule) is beyond me as well; you'll need to contact Microsoft about (but I
doubt support will be able to answer it for you though).

--
Robert Sparnaaij [MVP-Outlook]
Coauthor, Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003


-----

Our company has recently upgraded from Outlook 2000 to Outlook 2003. I
have several rules set up on our Exchange server that move items from my
Inbox to various folders, depending on various conditions.

The problem is, OL 2003 does not consider new mail as "new mail" unless
it remains in the Inbox (at least, from what I understand and have read).
This prevents three actions from happening:

1) No desktop notification of the new mail
2) No sound notification of the new mail
3) No task tray notification (envelope icon) of the new mail

The first and second actions can be replicated by creating a rule that
will be used for all new messages received. However, there is no way to
also create an action for the task tray envelope icon in the rules.

I know I'm not the first person to ask about this, but I've yet to see
anyone give a direct answer as to whether or not there is a true fix for
this (as opposed to an alternative or changing my practices), and why MS
made this change (without offering an option to revert to the old
method), considering how many posts I've seen about asking about this.

Most responses I've seen just say to set up a rule for desktop alert &
sound, but the main problem with these is that they are lost when the
user is away from their machine. Then, the response to this is to create
a desktop notification (that pops up in the middle and stays until it is
closed), but this is much more intrusive, especially when you're actually
at the PC when the mail arrives.

My other question is, why does this notification fail only when connected
to an Exchange, but if connecting to a remote POP3 server, it behaves
just as before? This seems to contradict the fact that MS made a
conscious change to the new "feature" of preventing the notification when
rules move messages to another folder.

Thanks in advance for any feedback you have on this.

Jerad

 

[Jerad Rose]

Thanks for the response, Diane.

This worked perfectly! I set up my rules to "Run on this machine only", and
now all of my new mail alerts work (desktop, sound, and task tray icon).

Thanks again for the explanation and the workaround!

Jerad

 

[Roady [MVP]]

I don't think it will change either but I still like to see an option to
toggle it myself.

Outlook 2007 doesn't display the icon either for any mail account. This is
because the rules aren't being executed at Inbox folder level anymore but
are delivered directly to the correct folder.

--
Robert Sparnaaij [MVP-Outlook]
Coauthor, Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003


-----

Thanks for your response, Roady.

Unfortunately, I had read that link, and it only provides the workarounds
I listed in my original post.

Regarding POP3 vs. Exchange, for whatever reason, this alert works just
like I prefer it from my home email. I connect to my ISP (POP3) to get my
email, have similar rules set up to move mail to folders based on various
conditions, and the new mail task tray envelope icon shows up every time I
get a new email. Maybe it's a bug or glitch, but if so, I wish I could
figure out how to get it to behave that way at work.

I figured as much about trying to get MS to address this, considering it
still behaves the same way (AFAIK) in OL 2007. Like I said, I've seen
many posts about this regarding 2003, so it doesn't look like this will
change anytime soon.

Thanks again.
Jerad

See http://www.howto-outlook.com/howto/mailalert2003.htm

The change also applies to POP3 accounts. Only mails received in the
Inbox will show the envelope alert. Part of the reasoning for this was
that people didn't want the icon to show when they used rules to move
messages. Why they made the change without an option to turn it back on
(even as a rule) is beyond me as well; you'll need to contact Microsoft
about (but I doubt support will be able to answer it for you though).

--
Robert Sparnaaij [MVP-Outlook]
Coauthor, Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003


-----

Our company has recently upgraded from Outlook 2000 to Outlook 2003. I
have several rules set up on our Exchange server that move items from my
Inbox to various folders, depending on various conditions.

The problem is, OL 2003 does not consider new mail as "new mail" unless
it remains in the Inbox (at least, from what I understand and have
read). This prevents three actions from happening:

1) No desktop notification of the new mail
2) No sound notification of the new mail
3) No task tray notification (envelope icon) of the new mail

The first and second actions can be replicated by creating a rule that
will be used for all new messages received. However, there is no way to
also create an action for the task tray envelope icon in the rules.

I know I'm not the first person to ask about this, but I've yet to see
anyone give a direct answer as to whether or not there is a true fix for
this (as opposed to an alternative or changing my practices), and why MS
made this change (without offering an option to revert to the old
method), considering how many posts I've seen about asking about this.

Most responses I've seen just say to set up a rule for desktop alert &
sound, but the main problem with these is that they are lost when the
user is away from their machine. Then, the response to this is to
create a desktop notification (that pops up in the middle and stays
until it is closed), but this is much more intrusive, especially when
you're actually at the PC when the mail arrives.

My other question is, why does this notification fail only when
connected to an Exchange, but if connecting to a remote POP3 server, it
behaves just as before? This seems to contradict the fact that MS made
a conscious change to the new "feature" of preventing the notification
when rules move messages to another folder.

Thanks in advance for any feedback you have on this.

Jerad